Hey guys, I'm new on here, but not to fish keeping. I'm looking at setting up the coolest tank possible that won't require a lot of maintenance.

Basically, I came into a VERY nice tank, got it all set up at my dad's house (where I currently live) and then found out I'm going to be moving for school and won't be here to take care of it. Dad loves fish though, and we've already got a 5-6 inch pleco in a 20 long that we've had for years. So what I'm wanting to do is find out what kinds of fish I could put in this thing that would require minimum effort on his part. At the moment I've got about 20 feeder goldfish in it while it's cycling to make sure the water is safe for anything else we'd put in there.

I'd stock lightly and go for fish that aren't messy eaters. Probably a school of fish that will clean around the tank as well. Mollies maybe as they are fairly large and self-populating. I'd also see what fish your Dad likes as he will be caring for it.

On another note, wondering why you are fish-in cycling a tank and not just pinching filter media from your other tank to kick start it? It seems to me that the quicker you get it cycled, the more stable and established it will be when you have to depart?